


Possible (13/39?)

by Mexta



Series: Possible [13]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: M/M, post-412
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 20:03:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1911954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mexta/pseuds/Mexta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian goes to the clinic</p>
            </blockquote>





	Possible (13/39?)

The next morning Mickey had Ian up and waiting on the porch when the cab pulled onto the curb in front of his house. He didn't realize until Debbie stepped out that her ex was a taxi driver. 

Ian hadn't been especially cooperative but he hadn't protested either. He didn't say much and seemed to go along with his usual flat resignation. Mickey helped him into a clean sweater and coaxed a bit of food into him and figured they'd done pretty well.

Debbie got out of the car to take Ian's hand as Mickey supported him down the steps. When they reached the bottom Mickey looked up and was surprised to see Ian's older brother, Lip, standing by the trunk with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"We've got a chair if he needs it," Lip said around the butt.

"Not to get in the car." Mickey paused and watched Debbie settle Ian into the passenger seat, then looked back at Lip. "What're you doing here?"

"Want to see how my brother's doing."

"Yeah?" Mickey couldn't quite place what he was feeling but he could hear the resentment in his voice. "So where ya been for the last two weeks?"

"At home." Lip tossed the cigarette away and gave Mickey his usual cool stare. "Waiting for you to show up with him when you got tired of playing nurse."

"Fuck you, Gallagher." 

Lip gave a shrug, walking around the car, and got in the driver's side. Mickey pulled open the door behind Ian and threw himself in to the backseat. "I didn't show up, did I? And I ain't a nurse, asswipe. What happened to your ex?" he asked Debbie, as she got in behind Lip.

"He lent us the car. Not room for all of us."

Mickey shrugged and kept quiet from then on. During the drive up to the clinic he heard Lip speaking to Ian in a low voice, and caught himself straining to hear whether Ian responded. It was hard to tell, but it didn't sound to him like Ian was more forthcoming with his brother than with anyone else.

They had to park a couple of blocks away from the clinic and debated pulling out the wheelchair but Ian shrugged them off and walked on his own -- very slowly, and occasionally with help, but at least on his feet.

Inside the clinic, Mickey found himself taking charge a little, while Lip hung back to finish another cigarette before coming inside, and Debbie looked around curiously. He recognized the receptionist he'd seen last time, and knew what to expect. This time he gave Ian's real name and details; when he didn't know something he would ask Ian, who seemed to drag his focus back each time like his mind was somewhere very far away.

When they were finished with that Mickey looked up to see the nurse he'd spoken to last time, standing in her office doorway and watching them.

"Hello, Eddie," she said. "Glad to see you made it."

"Who's Eddie?" Lip asked Debbie, walking inside.

Mickey ignored them. "This is Ian," he said, putting an arm around Ian's lower back to pull him forward slightly. "The one I told you about."

"How are you, Ian?" the nurse asked, and Ian stared at her blankly without answering. "Good job getting him in," she said to Mickey, not seeming to notice Ian's silence. "And who are the rest of you?"

"I'm his sister, Debbie. And this is Lip -- Phillip -- our brother."

"I see. All right, Ian -- are you okay to come in and talk to me alone?"

It hadn't occurred to Mickey that he might need to relinquish Ian to someone else. "I'm goin' with," he said sharply. 

"We'll want to meet with all of you a little later, but we really prefer to talk to the client alone to start with, if it's possible," the nurse said, turning back to Ian. "Ian? Is that okay with you?"

Ian's gaze turned slowly toward Mickey, and Mickey tightened his arm around Ian's waist. All he could think of was his promise from the other night. "I'm going in if you want me to. Don't matter what she says."

But Ian's stare moved away from him, travelled over to Lip and Debbie and then to the nurse. He gave a small nod. "I'm okay."

The nurse stepped back into her office, the one Mickey had been in last time, and waited till Ian shuffled inside, then shut the door gently behind him. For a few seconds Mickey kept staring at the door, half-expecting it to open and release Ian, who surely didn't realize what he had just agreed to. 

Nothing happened, and eventually Mickey turned around to see Lip and Debbie watching him. "I'm goin' out for a smoke," he said abruptly, and made his own escape to the sidewalk in front of the clinic. 

***

Lip came out and joined him a few minutes later. He came over to get a light from Mickey, which felt oddly like a peace offering, and they smoked in silence for a while in front of the building.

"How's he been doing?" Lip asked finally.

Mickey shrugged. "Not great."

Lip had a way of kind of cocking his head to the side and squinting at you that Mickey didn't really like. But he didn't need any more enemies either, so he tried to keep his tone more neutral. 

"He eating?" Lip said.

"Sometimes."

"Getting out of bed?"

"Sometimes."

"Talking to you?"

Mickey hesitated on that one. "Sometimes."

Lip did that squinting thing again. "He ever talk about offing himself, Mickey?"

"No. He ain't said anything like that." MIckey dropped his butt and stepped on it, debating going back inside.

"He taking that lithium we gave you?"

"No, man. They said it's not the right shit for how he is right now."

"What'd you mean, how he is right now?"

"I mean depressed, Einstein. He's supposed to take some other kinda shit. Forget what it's called, starts with S. I guess they'll give it to him now."

"So you've been here before?"

Mickey gave him a sideways glance. "Came to check the place out."

"With him?"

"No." What was this, the third degree? Mickey shuffled his feet and looked at the door -- which happened to open just then, as Debbie stepped out. 

"You guys," she said. "Come back in. The nurse wants to talk to us all."


End file.
